Wilson Foods To Sell Plant In Monmouth

100 Jobs To Be Cut Elsewhere

Wilson Foods Corp. said Thursday it is putting its Monmouth, Ill., plant up for sale and reducing its salaried work force by about 100 persons, primarily at its Oklahoma City headquarters.

A company spokesman said it hopes the sale will not result in any loss of jobs for the 748 employees at the Monmouth plant.

The sale is part of a reorganization the firm says will result in a first-quarter charge of about $21 million. The company also said it expects fiscal first-quarter operating losses of about $3 million this year. Wilson emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last March.

In the last year`s first quarter, ended Oct. 27, 1984, Wilson posted net income of $127,000, or 2 cents a share, on sales of $402.17 million.

Wilson Foods also said it will cease slaughter operations at its Cherokee, Ia., plant and transfer certain processed-meat operations to Cherokee from Monmouth, a town of 10,000 about 175 miles southwest of Chicago. The company said the reorganization will reduce its slaughter operations about 44 percent. It also said its plans have been reviewed by its primary lender, Citicorp Industrial Credit.

Wilson has informed the leadership of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union of its plans and filed with the union the required six-month notice of closing the Illinois plant.

``For the first time in the company`s history (because of the reorganization) it will achieve a desirable balance between its slaughter capacity and its raw material needs for processing, thus limiting its exposure to the volatile commodity fresh-meat business,`` the company said.

The company said that by reducing its slaughter operations it ``will reduce significantly the potential for future operating losses.``

While still operating under Chapter 11 last year, Wilson sold its Cedar Rapids, Ia., hog slaughtering and processing plant to Kesef-Mazal Corp., of Elizabeth, N.J., for about $16 million.

Last month, Iowa Beef Processors Inc., a unit of Occidental Petroleum Corp., said it was interested in buying Wilson Foods. Efforts to reach a spokesman for Iowa Beef Thursday were unsuccessful.

Wilson also announced that Richard T. Berg has been renamed president and chief operating officer. Berg is a director but retired as president in early 1984. Since then, Kenneth J. Griggy had served as president, in addition to duties as chairman and chief executive, which he will retain.